Originally posted by KJames199I disagree! Bret was never a great talker, and now he's a stroke victim who's been off live TV for 10 years. He far exceeded my expectations. Maybe I was just easily impressed that he was on the "WWE Universe" train like a champ, whereas I was expecting him to call it "the WWF" all night long.

While that may have been true earlier on in his run, I do feel that by 1996-97 Bret was a very capable talker. His heel turn in '97 is not given nearly the amount of credit it deserves for keeping the WWF afloat during a time they were being absolutely sodomized by the hot nWo angle. That USA/Canada deal was really emotional and really inflamed people, I remember attending several house shows during the period. Bret's long "USA can kiss my ass" promo was really ambitious. Almost completely unscripted, covering a long swath of events in character, building to a great payoff with the beatdown of Michaels after. And that whole spring and summer he kept it up, with the reuniting of Owen and Davey being another key moment. I'll take that over Flair wailing, incoherent and red-faced, then elbow-dropping a blazer before breaking into shameless sobs. Bret wasn't a sportz-entertainment promo, but he was believable and genuine, which is sorely missing from WWE's stick men of today.

Originally posted by KJames199I disagree! Bret was never a great talker

While that may have been true earlier on in his run, I do feel that by 1996-97 Bret was a very capable talker. (...) Bret wasn't a sportz-entertainment promo, but he was believable and genuine, which is sorely missing from WWE's stick men of today.

You're entirely right. I was going to reply to myself (but you beat me to it) - it's not that Bret was a bad talker, but he talked like a normal person and not a crazy wrestling character. He became a very good promo guy, even though he lacked the flash that some of the best talkers have. It actually added realism to his character because he didn't try to be something he wasn't.

I always felt the same about Chris Benoit, who always got knocked for being a bad promo and not having charisma. He could talk and had charisma, he just wasn't flashy about it in the standard wrestling way.

I remember reading about someone (Kevin Nash, maybe?) talking about how guys can be "too Canadian" (and thus boring or uncharismatic), using guys like Bret, Benoit, and Lance Storm as examples (and I believe Dean Malenko was listed as an honourary Canadian).

Originally posted by ladygypsyIs it still really the Vince show? Is he still playing the evil CEO role?

He's not on TV as much as he used to be, which is good. But he's still there and I imagine he will be in some capacity until he's dead. The speculation is that Vince will fight Bret at Wrestlemania, so he'll probably be more prominently featured in the coming few months. Having said that, he's now 64 or thereabouts and has had several major injuries over the years, and can't really wrestle anymore (neither can Bret, so they'll probably have a streetfight to hide their limitations). I'd imagine he'll be done with actually wrestling once the Bret match is over.

Maybe I am going to get some hate here but I never thought Bret Hart was bad on the mic.

Face or heel, I always thought Bret could hang in there. Granted, he was no Stone Cold, Rock, or even Hogan, but then again, who was?

Like someone mentioned, when he spoke, he spoke seemingly from his natural character and not as much from the sports entertainment side.

I am not trying to brown-nose on Bret Hart here, but I feel if you could hold your own on the mic and make yourself look like a legitimate champion, then you have done a good job or at least a good enough job (which he did).

Originally posted by KJames199I disagree! Bret was never a great talker

While that may have been true earlier on in his run, I do feel that by 1996-97 Bret was a very capable talker. (...) Bret wasn't a sportz-entertainment promo, but he was believable and genuine, which is sorely missing from WWE's stick men of today.

You're entirely right. I was going to reply to myself (but you beat me to it) - it's not that Bret was a bad talker, but he talked like a normal person and not a crazy wrestling character. He became a very good promo guy, even though he lacked the flash that some of the best talkers have. It actually added realism to his character because he didn't try to be something he wasn't.

I think this is why I thought Bret's talking wasn't that great even though his delivery was actually good. I believe that Bret Hart wants to get past Montreal and is willing to bury the hatchet, but what they scripted for him didn't ring true to me to what Bret would actually be saying. Maybe it was the "WWE Universe" or "I've been trying to come back for 12 years" that threw me off, but it kind of made it seem like Bret, who was always super-believable and realistic-sounding, was acting in a school play about Montreal and forgiveness. But it's probably just an awkward thing to have to act out -- comparatively I thought his backstage bit with Jericho was really good.

I liked Raw. In the minds of some, TNA won on Monday. However this is not a battle, it's a war (probably like Iraq the First....but whatever).

WWE set up the Bret thing to be long lasting(well 3 or 4 months or so) with the Vince kick thing. I see them executing on this better than TNA pulling off a successful story with their overfilled cast that includes The Nasty Boys & Orlando Jordan. However, I will say TNA pulled it off. I'm intrigued, I will catch some more shows just to see what happens. Too bad for them that my ratings don't count.

Back to Raw

Again I enjoyed it. I want to point out that lately one constant thought that keeps occurring to me during Evan Bourne's matches. "Oh my Gawd, they killed Evan, those bastards!"

Seriously, that kid can bump, he looks dead every time he takes a finisher. As much as many people hate to see him get squashed so bad, I have to pay him some respect for doing it so well.

Funny story too (IMO). I missed the Mike Tyson thing for next week. My friend told my Iron Mike Tyson was coming. I heard Iron Mike Sharpe.. How cool would that be to have him as a guest host? Probably not that cool. However it looks like he might have something to advertise on the show if they wanted him. Nice to see he is still ticking! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1117645/